10 Lessons Learned: Our Startup's First Year

By Joe Quinn April 2014 seems like a distant memory. But it wasn’t that long ago that we opened Emereo Creative’s humble little office in the heart of Downtown Orlando. With big dreams and bigger ideas, we started on our journey towards doing something special. I’ve learned a lot this past year and am proud of how far we’ve come in such a short time. All my appreciation and thanks go to our great team and clients! So here’s a few takeaways from a year of hustling a new startup off the ground.

It’s hard work and you’d better work hard. If you think building the next best startup is going to lead to the high life in a few months, dream again. I totally expected to work more than the typical Monday to Friday, 8-5, but I could have never imagined the demands of getting a startup off the ground. 12-hour days became the norm, meals were an afterthought, and the new venture consumed every waking moment.

An intense businessman who typically put in 16-hour days and took only two three-day vacations in the first five years after establishing Microsoft, Bill Gates was demanding and strong-willed about implementing his vision.

If you’re not ready to eat, sleep, and breathe your startup, you may want to reconsider. Remove the term “work-life balance” from your vocabulary and focus like a machine. In the end, your ability to push the company forward through sheer will could be the difference between success and failure.

When building a startup, one of your top priorities should be to build a team, not a paycheck. Getting those first few wins in the door is a great feeling – and getting paid is even better! But if you want your business to continue growing, you need a great team behind you even if it means not paying yourself. In fact, you may want to put off paying yourself for as long as possible because once you start, it’s much harder to stop. Not taking a paycheck for the first year wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. We were able to bring on talent quickly and rapidly elevate our work, which ultimately led to larger opportunities that we otherwise would not have been able to win with a smaller team. Check out this article from Entrepreneur to work through how to pay yourself during the early stages of your company.

Overhead kills companies and it will kill your startup if you’re not careful. Get the smallest office possible, if you even need one. Many companies can operate remotely, which saves you thousands of dollars per month providing office space for your team. Instead, take your savings and invest in acquiring more talent for your team or further development of your product. If you build and deliver the best possible product, your sweet office digs can come down the road. Also, consider how you can leverage SaaS products to reduce upfront investments. In the long-run they may cost more, but paying $80 per month for Adobe Creative Suite for two people is far better than being out $5,000 when you’re strapped for cash. Another startup savings tip is a secret to avoiding costly phone bills: VOIP phones! Purchase one line from RingCentral which includes unlimited extensions. Route the extensions to forward to your team’s smartphone and you can have hundreds of lines for the price of one! By keeping your startup costs and monthly expenses as low as possible, you can invest fully in your product and survive the slow seasons that put other startups out of business.

Dreams are an important part of surviving the first year of your startup. Things willget complicated and having goals and ambitions to keep you accountable could make all the difference. Make sure you have tangible annual goals for the first five years, along with high-level goals for the following five years. Check out FastCo’s thoughts on how to envision your 5-year plan. By remaining focused on the year-one goal of growing to 5 team members we were able to handle many of the challenges we’re experienced. Focusing on growing the team made it easier to put off paychecks, keep expenses down, and work long hours each day to achieve our growth.

Equity is key. The longer you can make it without giving up equity in your startup, the more you’ll be rewarded when you’re ready for a growth stage or acquisition. Take a year to save up cash and create your business plan so you don’t have to find investors to front your startup capital. Having equity in hand to share with your team down the road will pay bigger dividends than selling it at a low valuation to a silent investor at the start.

In year one, every opportunity is a big opportunity. Every project, however big or small, is the project that can make or break a startup’s success. Use each project as an opportunity to improve your company’s processes. Ask yourself how the last project could have been improved and how you could implement a new idea into your next project. To be honest, we’ve had more mishaps than celebrations in year one. But true failure is not learning from those mishaps and discovering how to use what was learned to fuel improvement. Looking back at this time last year, we wonder how we ever made it. By constantly looking to improve and refine how we provide value to our clients, we have increased our effectiveness with each new project.

As a new business, you need to develop a network of healthy and supportive relationships. Instead of meeting people and merely trying to sell them your product, ask them how you can help their business. Developing these valuable relationships could one day lead to a great partnership but if nothing else, everyone you meet is a potential word-of-mouth referral. Relationships determine whether your business will thrive or die, so tread carefully and don’t burn bridges.

You started a business for a reason. You have created a product and experience that can’t be duplicated by your competitors. You are the expert at what you do, so be confident in your work. You’ll encounter those who don’t appreciate your expertise and instead chose to influence your professional work and process. You are the professional, that’s why they are paying you. Remember to maintain the relationship, so be firm but friendly when communicating your professional position. Check out Sean Wes’ excellent take on confidently setting an expectation for professionalism when working with clients. And most of all, remember that the key to a successful partner relationship is the ability to walk away! If you or your client can’t walk then you’ve become a slave and that will sour the relationship quickly. Know when to end a partnership, but remember that you must maintain a positive relationships, so part ways the right way.

If you don’t remember anything else from this post please remember this one. Do not do work without a solid contract. Trust me, you don’t want to learn this lesson the hard way.

Getting your startup off the ground requires a lot of serious decisions but don’t get stuck taking yourself too seriously. It’s important to work hard but there should occasionally be some time for play. So break away from the routines and do something unique and memorable with your team. Developing a welcoming and healthy office environment where your team can thrive could be the difference between a startup that ends quickly and a long, enjoyable venture.   I hope you find these insights from my first year leading a startup helpful. It’s been a wild ride and I’m thrilled for the future. Please share your thoughts and your own lessons learned from your own startup journey!]]>